Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

Was researching some of my Williams family descendants this morning, and ran into a puzzle.

Not that puzzles in my family are out of the ordinary or anything...

But now I'm really curious.Homer Franklin Wells is my first cousin, twice removed.

He was the son of James Webster Wells and my great grand aunt, Margaret Letcher Williams.

He married Ruth Haseltine Hester, daughter of Charles E Hester and America Gooch, date unknown. He and Ruth had two children, Margaret Hester Wells Roper and Calvin Ratcliff Wells.

The Hester family hailed from Virginia. Historic documents indicate their roots were deep in Virginia soil. Ruth was born in Virginia.

In 1930, Homer and Ruth were living in Richmond, VA - a long way from Arkansas where Homer was born. Homer was a foreman for a foil manufacturing company.

In 1940, they were still married, but living about a mile and a half apart in Washington DC. Homer lived in a boardinghouse run by a man named William Miner, who was a marble cutter. Homer was a gardener for the War Department. The address of the boardinghouse was 1113 Massachusetts Avenue NW. Along with several other men, there were two men who worked for the FBI living there. Not all the men had government jobs.

Ruth was living with the kids at 2000 16th Street NW. Her occupation was saleslady.

That seemed curious to me. Why were they living apart in 1940?

It got even more curious.Ruth died in 1943. She was buried in Hillcrest Cemetery, Louisa, Louisa Co., VA, the town where she was raised, and in the same cemetery as her parents.

In 1951, Homer was living in Manhattan, KS. It was there that he applied for a membership in the Arkansas Chapter of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, based on the Revolutionary War service of our many greats grandfather, Jesse Williams, who served in Ens Union's Company, Lux Regiment in the Maryland Infantry.

When Homer died in 1953, he was buried in Ft Leavenworth National Cemetery, Ft Leavenworth, KS - not with his wife. His burial was arranged and marker ordered by his daughter.

And I cannot find any trace on the internet of anyone looking for Ruth's family, or anyone besides me looking for information on Homer Franklin Wells as an adult.

ETA: Thanks to Rainbow, I know now that America Gooch was America Gooch Tisdale.

I *think* they're a different line than my Gooches/Googes, but it gets murky. I'm honestly not clear which line IS my line; the one researcher who evidently had proof passed on and her research isn't online; the line I have sort of abruptly connects John Gooch who died in Barnwell, SC in 6 Aug 1813 to John Gooch born in Louisa in 1751 (son of Rowland and Unity Gooch), but with nothing that actually proves the connection...